With the Fireball title race over, Irish teams now concentrate on the final races and improving their overall standing. But the moniker of World Champion is already gone. Cormac Bradley sends us another missive from the sandy shores of Bridgetown as the island event winds down.Chips Howarth and Vyv Townend have dominated the 2010 Worlds in Barbados with six race wins and two thirds under their belts. This currently gives them a 16-point advantage over Matt Burge & Richard Wagstaff who have a five point advantage over Matt Findlay & Richard Anderton. Fourth is Dave Edwards & Simon Potts with the first non UK boat, the Aussies Ben Schulz & Phillip Bowley in 5th overall.

Among the Irish sailing entries, Neil Spain & Francis Rowan are the leading boat in 21st overall with Noel Butler & Seamus Moore in 26th. These two have kept most of their results in the twenties with each having a mid-teens result and a 30th each as well.

In 35th overall, Messrs Laverty & Butler have scored results mostly in the thirties but with one result in the twenties (27th) and two in the forties. Next up is Smyth/Bradley in 46th with a high of a 31st and a low of a DNF. Their results are consistently in the forties. Frank Miller & Marguerite O'Rourke have not had a good series by their standards and lie in 49th with the last Irish boat Hannah Showell & Martina Michels in 60th.

Other well known combinations are as follows; Derian & Andy Scott (18th), Tim Rush & Russ Clark (9th), Vince Horey/ Sam Brearey (11th) and Heather McFarlane & Chris Payne (17th).

Two races tomorrow (Fri) conclude the series but Howarth/Townend don't look as though they need to sail them both. Prize-giving is scheduled for tomorrow evening.

It has been a physically challenging series even on those days when the wind eased. The fleet has been launching at 11:45ish for a 12:30 start and getting ashore at around 16:30. Most evenings have seen the club environs empty earlyish. Burning the midnight oil in a social context has been the exception rather than the rule!!

Fireball International Week, the warm up to next weeks world championships, concluded in Barbados yesterday. Dublin's Noel Butler and Seamus Moore were the best of the Irish with two 14s leaving them in 16th overall. Neil Spain and Franis Rowan finishe just outside the top 20 in 21st. Owen Laverty and Hugh Butler also had a good days sailing with two scores in the twenties. This allowed them to crack a top 30 finish in 29th. They were followed in the overal ranking by Smyth/Bradley in 37th, and Miller/O'Rourke in 56th. The 61 boat fleet was led home by a Brit 1-2-3 with Howarth/Townsend winning both races toiday to post a warning to all those with designs on their Worlds title. Second were Dave Edwards and Simon Potts, followed by Kevin Hope/Russell Thorne. The winners had a 2pt margin on second.

More on the forum thread here.

Spoiled for Choice

There’s no shortage of one-design classes from which to choose and each gives its enthusiasts great competition, fun and camaraderie, writes Graham Smith in this review of the classes. A profile of each active class in Ireland is supplied below; just click on the title link (in bold) or the Class Association link to go directly to the information.

One-design racing is where it all starts. It is, after all, where all the top sailors earned their stripes, battling away for line honours without a thought for a handicapper’s calculator wiping away a hard-fought victory!

Indeed, you could count on less than one hand the number of top Irish sailors who didn’t cut their teeth in a one-design dinghy! Just think of Cudmore, Barrington, Watson, Wilkins, Hennessy and Dix to name a few and you realise that they honed their skills in everything from Enterprises to Lasers and a lot in between.

At present count, there are a little over 30 one-design classes in Ireland, split almost evenly between dinghies and keelboats, a statistic which might raise a few eyebrows. They range from the long-established Mermaids, IDRA14s and Dragons to the newer additions like Fevas, Topaz and RS Elite. They all fill a particular need and give their owners and crews considerable enjoyment.

Many have attracted their World or European Championships to Irish waters over the years and while 2009 is notable for a lack of such events here, the following year will see the Etchells Worlds at Howth and perhaps a few other international regattas too.

In addition to the review, we asked each class to complete a questionnaire giving details of their fleet numbers, whether they were on a growth pattern or holding their own, so we could highlight those ‘on the up’ and those remaining static in terms of numbers. The older traditional designs, as you might imagine, fall into the latter category, although that’s not a negative!

 

CLASS REVIEW  The State of the Classes – League Table (as at February 2009)

S = Static; U = Up/growing

275     Optimist   U

200+   Laser   S

189     Mermaid   S

160     Flying Fifteen   S

130     RS Feva   U

115     Shannon One Design    U

100+   Mirror   S

100+   Topper   U

99       Topaz   U

94       Laser SB3   U

87       GP14   U

85       Squib   S

70       Fireball   S

70       Ruffian   S

60       J24   S

60       Shipman   S

52       Dragon   S

50       RS400/200   S

50       420    U

43       Multihulls    U

42       Dragon    S

40       Water Wags    U

40       Wayfarer    S

34       IDRA14    U

33       Puppeteer    U

28       Etchells    S

27       E-Boat    U

26       Glen    S

25       Enterprise    S

18       Sigma 33    S

18       Howth 17    U

13       RS Elite    U